I don't think Brady is in decline. I think he has 3 years left. I have said that repeatedly, I am just going by what BB has said, and has done. And reports from Schefter that have all been right so far. The last one being "they want to keep him beyond 2017" draw your own conclusions.
Again I will say that I think Brady has 2 or 3 years left of Brady level play.
By that logic they cannot keep Garrapolo, which is too bad but that's the way it goes. The truth of the matter is that Brady is defying the norms but it isn't a fluke it's the result of hard work and a really intelligent approach to his craft. And he is absolutely right in saying it makes no sense to quit when he has all the answers to the defense's he faces. All signs point to Brady continuing his dominance over the league, and no player in league history gives a team a better chance to win the Lombardi than Brady does, so moving on from him while he is still one of the best players in football makes no sense at all. And the only argument for keeping Garrapolo is if Brady is telling Belichick and the Kraft's that he is hanging them up if they win it all again this season, and to date he has been saying the opposite.
Imo the reasons Belichick has not moved Garrapolo are as follows.
-Belichick wants a good back-up behind Brady because this team is so strong they could actually win a Lombardi with Garrapolo at QB if Brady went down.
-Belichick wants to see how much progress Brissett has made before moving on from Garrapolo.
-The 2017 QB draft class flat out sucked, whereas 2018 is loaded, so trading Garrapolo for a top pick in next years draft makes much more sense than trading him for a top pick this year.
Garrapolo provides a quality back up at a really low price, whereas the veteran back ups are way overpriced and they suck.
Imo the Patriots are going to move Garrapolo for a high pick in the next draft, and they will target Brady's successor in that draft, and the only caveats would be if Brady decided to hang them up and he's hiding it from the public, or if he had a career ending injury in 2017.
I expect Brady to be the best player in football again this season and beyond. His peers on defense, Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Dwight Freeney etc... are all done or gone.so you now have the smartest QB in history facing a bunch of 25 year old defenders (by avg age) and he knows everything they are trying to do while they have no idea what he will do, and he literally scares the sh.t out of them. And the way Brady manages games there is no player in football and football history that gives you a better chance to win every game you are in. When asked by Coach K what Brady's greatest strength as a QB is he responded that it is Brady's ability to avoid negative plays, which is why he has only lost one game in Foxborough where they were ahead at the half, and there is absolutely no reason, including age, to think his greatest strength will suddenly get weaker.
More than anything else I think Brady has earned and deserves the respect of Patriot fans to believe in him and support him. And Patriot fans need to realize that no player will ever give them a greater chance to win a Lombardi, and that each one they win from here in out sets them apart from the rest of the league and solidifies their position as the greatest team in NFL history. Just as winning has #5 resolved the debate over the GOAT winning #'s 6 & 7 would absolutely cement the Belichick/Brady Patriots as the GOAT team of all time. And Belichick as the ultimate football historian realizes where they are standing and wants to make that kind of history. Paul Brown is his football idol and that's who he wants to emulate, and creating that kind of legacy would achieve that.
The bottom line imo is that Brady will continue to be the best player in football for the foreseeable future and they cannot hang on to Garrapolo for that long, so he moves on and Brady/Belichick, and the Patriots will keep winning Lombardi's and cementing their place as the greatest team in history.
